Hats Off To Lorde For Calling Out This Stalker Paparazzo In A Badass Twitter Rant

Lorde took to Twitter this weekend to call out a paparazzo who has allegedly been getting way too close to the seventeen-year-old, and it’s a chilling reminder of how much we seem to think that celebrities’ lives belong to the collective celeb-obsessed culture.

this man has been stalking me, photographing me and refusing me privacy. i am scared of him. he frequents central akl pic.twitter.com/RGv39ESELV

She identified the photographer as Simon Runting, and apparently he won’t leave her alone. It seems that Runting has crossed the line far past doing his job, and Lorde feels like her safety is threatened.

But fear, intimidation, and stalking aren’t part of the game, and exist firmly outside of what Lorde and other celebrities sign up for. No seventeen-year-old (or anyone for that matter) should be made to feel unsafe just because he or she is famousâ€“you don’t lose the right to safety and security or ownership of your life just because you have a hit record.

While I tend to think of paparazzi photos as just part of being famous, it’s important to remember that these celebrities are just people who want to eat their lunch in peace, and any photo I see of a famous person walking around town means that that person was being followed by loud, obnoxious paparazzi snapping their cameras and harassing him or her. Lorde’s rant is an important reminder of the ugly way in which celebrity sausage gets made. Back the hell off.